Crazy Water Aqua Fun Park was a water park in the Gaza Strip, that opened in May 2010. Mohammed Al-Araj, a former economics minister for the Hamas government in Gaza, was one of the owners of the park.

The park featured 3 swimming pools, a canal 100 meters long, three water slides, ponds with pedal boats, a restaurant, a cafe, and a quiet area shaded by a tent where adults could sit on carpets and listen to music.

The park was built with materials assembled from war-torn buildings as well as materials brought through the Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels. Construction was completed in six months.

The park cost $2 million to build. It had 90 employees, not counting about 80 food vendors.

Two thousand families visited the Crazy Water Park during the first four days after it opened.

In August 2010, Hamas authorities closed the water park for three days as a “warning” to the management against allowing men and women to mingle at parties.

In early September 2010, Hamas authorities shut down the park again for 21 days, along with other resorts and a horse riding club.

Then, later in September 2010, the park was torched by a group of 40 masked men.

Now there’s only memories.

About the Author:Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published Dancing and Crying, a colorful and intimate portrait of the last two years in the life of the late Lubavitch Rebbe, (in Hebrew), and
two fun books in English: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.

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7 Responses to “The Rise and Fall of Gaza Crazy Park”

Those evil bastards, torching a park for CHILDREN! The poor little war-torn Palestinian kids, whose lives have so little… some enterprising soul with a heart for kids opens up a water park so the kids can have some fun, AND THOSE EVIL HAMAS BASTARDS TORCH IT! Now 90 poor guys are unemployed, and the food vendors, too. Thanks a lot, Hamas. They're probably going to find some way to blame Israel for it, too. What a drag.

"Then, later in September 2010, the park was torched by a group of 40 masked men. Now there's only memories."

It's interesting, then, that the promotional video embedded in this very post begins with the caption, "Crazy Water Park 2011."

We all understand that the Jewish Press is not, and will never be, an outlet for responsible journalism. But perhaps you might fabricate "news" in a way that won't insult your readers' intelligence quite so badly?

Muslims build water park, Muslims enjoy water park, Muslims burn down water park. So what if the dates were wrong? Maybe he wrote 2010 instead of 2011. Try focusing on you blood thirsty, backwards religion Joe Catron, instead of blaming the Jew for the incompetents of 1.5 billion Muslims.

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